This is the third part in a series of three posts about writing a Facebook application with Facebook. If you have not already ready done so, you should read the first and second parts first.
The technology behind Facebook applications is actually quite straight-forward. It is completely platform agnostic so you can build an app with any technology you might use to serve HTML content. My choice would be Python, but then I am a shameless Python fan-boy. Unfortunately there are still problems that any Facebook application developer will face, and most aren’t technology related.
Facebook have solved a number of challenging problems and for the most part it is an elegant solution to adding third party applications to their own site. But Facebook isn’t the grand free-for-all platform that the world wide web is — Facebook must tread a fine line between allowing the application developer to generate revenue and avoid annoying the user so much that they abandon their accounts. Its understandable — I wouldn’t want an application popping up adverts or sending mails on my behalf — but the rules they put in place tend to put the app developer at odds with Facebook admin.
For example, there is an API call that sends out notifications. When you receive a notification it displays a little text and link which you might use to inform a user that a friend has sent them something or done something else that is directly relevant to them. Facebook don’t want applications flooding other users with these notifications, so it places restrictions on the number that can be sent out. The documentation says the application can ’send up to 40 notifications to the notifications page per user per day’, which to to me is unclear whether an application can send 40 notifications per day on a user behalf or receive 40 notifications per day (apparently its the former). That used to be the case, but Facebook introduced a new system that restricts notifications even further. Applications receive a variable allowance of notifications that changes depending on how many users hide its notifications. The more users that hide your notifications, the less notifications an application may send out. The starting level seems to be 10 notification per day, a good bit under the original 40. This restriction strikes me as being excessively harsh on the application developer, and I’m not the only one who thinks so — the forums are full of application developers venting their annoyance at this and other restrictions. In my opinion it would be far more sensible to restrict the number of notifications that can be received from an application, even one per user per day would be fine! I don’t think anyone would be too annoyed by at most one notification per day send from a friend.
Facebook appear to be constantly tweaking and modifying their system to keep applications in check and make the content from applications as relevant as possible. And they prefer to do this by automated means, much to the chagrin of the application developers who feel they are being unfairly penalised by an flawed system. Unfortunately if you want a piece of Facebooks pie, you need to play by their rules. I suspect the gold-rush is over for Facebook applications, but as long as you keep on top the constantly shifting platform it could be a lucrative opportunity.
My own application doesn’t seem to be doing too well. Perhaps because of the reasons I am posting here, or because it is a waste of time and people don’t see the point. Whatever the reason, I am less inclined to create a Facebook app for becontrary.com, which was my original reason for looking in to it. It has started me thinking about how to make a better job of embedding an application inside a host web app, so writing a Facebook app may have been a good use of my time after all. Maybe I can do a better job, the poor schmucks at Facebook are lumbered with PHP. ;-)
